Exploring the ever increasing complexity of waterfowl guides
SR. Who is Zach Shaver?
ZS. Iʼm Zach Shaver and I grew up in the waterfowl industry. I started tagging along in the field with my uncle Tony when I was 4 years old. I fell in love with it and have been in the field ever since. If itʼs not hunting season and Iʼm not guiding then you can catch me saving some lives on the ambulance.
SR. Where do you guide?
ZS. I guide out of west Texas and southwestern Oklahoma. I started guiding when I was 12 so Iʼve been at it professionally for about 16 years now. We primarily hunt dry fields (which I prefer). If it werenʼt for the occasional afternoon duck hunt on a pond I wouldnʼt even own a pair of waders. We try doing most of our afternoon hunts in dry fields as well. Out of our Texas camp, we hunt 90% peanut fields. The other 10% is split between wheat fields and milo, but our birds down in Texas love the nuts. We are shooting a good mix of Canada’s and specks with a few snows mixed in here and there. Out of our Oklahoma camp, we are shooting primarily Canada geese and mainly hunting wheat fields. We shoot a lot of mallards, pintail, and wigeon out of milo fields up there as well.
SR. Advice for a guy trying to get better at hunting?
ZS. If I could offer any advice to anyone looking to get into the waterfowl industry, more specifically goose hunting itʼd be donʼt slack on the scout. Know your birds. Take notes. Which direction are they coming from to get to me? How far is the roost from where I am hunting? Where in the field are they feeding? What size groups are they when they are coming in? If I have a field with 2000 geese in it but they come in two groups of 1000 then I may try and find an alternative field to give me more opportunity. Pay attention to the fine details once you get into the field and everything else will work itself out. And last, GET HID.
SR. Gotta good band story?
ZS. One of my favorite band stories ever has to be the time I swiped a band from Andy. It was opening day in Texas in 2016 and it was a foggy misty bitch. Anyone whoʼs hunted this area in Texas can tell you about the fine sugar sand we are blessed with. You add moisture to that in the action of a shotgun and itʼs a disaster. So we start hearing that dreadful sound of clients working the action back and forth trying to clear their guns as best they can after we had just shot into a flock of birds. Andy hops up to help the guys with their guns and his dog Lou comes bringing back this beauty of a speck, just barred out. Well, I see itʼs leg and there sits a band. So instead of letting Lou go bother Andy while he was doing the clients a solid and fixing their guns for them, I just heeled him up on me and took the bird off his hands. And yes, kept the band. Sue me
SR. Biggest disaster hunt?
ZS. I have numerous hunts that were just complete disasters but one that particularly comes to mind was from this last season. We had some of the biggest rains on record this last hunting season and mud just tends to make everything more difficult. We had two groups in on this particular weekend and only had one field off the pavement with birds in it that we could get to. Andy and Logan had hunted a field off the pavement the day before and I guess assumed they were going to hunt this same field the next day so just decided to leave the A-frames out in the field overnight after theyʼd been rained and snowed on all day. Anyways, the plan was for Blake and I to take the side by side with a utility trailer hooked on out into the field we were going to hunt with all of our gear (besides the blinds) then while we set the spread, Andy and Logan were going to take the side by side and said utility trailer back to the other field to break the blinds down then bring them back and have them set up by daylight. Blake and I start off into the field and things are going well. We find our spot we want to set up in so throw all the Divebomb bags out and then start heading back to take the ATV to the other boys. Well about halfway back we realize we got turned around in the dark and ended up on the low end of the field where all the standing water was and just completely bury this trailer and side by side. We worked on getting unstuck for at least 30 minutes and me not thinking, just had my lace-ups on so my feet are soaked and itʼs like 25 degrees out. Finally, Blake and I just opted to leave the trailer there and at least get the ATV out. We were able to do so and made it back to Andy. Then we realize we no longer have a trailer to haul the A-frames in so that plan is shot out the window. We ended up calling Tony who brings another trailer out to us so then they all go to get the blinds. Well, what do you know? Theyʼre frozen solid. So now we have a trailer stuck in the middle of the field, we have no blinds, we have 12 disgruntled clients and we have 50 dozen decoys sitting bagged out in the middle of this field somewhere and we have 30 minutes till shooting time. Finally, we just decide to hunt a levy on the north side of the field, get out as many decoys as possible in that amount of time and just hope for the best. It was a disaster and I think we ended up scratching out one bird that day
SR. What’s on your lanyard?
ZS. I carry 3 calls on my lanyard is all. Two 737 nitro goose calls, one wood and one acrylic and a 737 No. 1. duck call. I’m a single-reed guy but 737 makes an awesome double-reed as well. If youʼre searching for a new duck or goose call then look these guys up! Theyʼre great guys with an awesome product.
SR. Best time to come hunt?
ZS. If I could pick a time of year when I would say things are at their best down here with us, Texas or Oklahoma, itʼd be from the week after Christmas till about mid-January. Thereʼs a high chance youʼre going to burn the geese and ducks both up during that time. We were absolutely smashing the mallards in Oklahoma most all of January. If you want some badass dry field duck hunts then definitely go up there during that time.
SR. How do we get in touch with you?
ZS. My Instagram account is @zachshaver9, give me a follow. I post a lot of pile pics and any cool video I get out in the field.
SR. Can you still hear out of both ears?
ZS. My hearing is shit. All the years Iʼve been around huge groups volleying off and I donʼt think Iʼve ever worn hearing protection. Shame on me, I know mom.
SR. Why do you hunt?
ZS. I waterfowl hunt 1. Because Iʼm badass at it and B. Because I love it. Thereʼs nothing more satisfying to me than to go out into a wild animals element, set everything up and do the dance and be able to outsmart them, thatʼs super rewarding. I rarely even shoot anymore, I can count on one hand how many times I pulled the trigger last season but just the fact of being able to go out there and put those birds where I want them…thatʼs the shit that gets me hard.
